Misjudged is too weak a word to express the negative impression I have about the hs2 project. To me hs2 represents the bulldozer in the rain forest, or perhaps the conquistodors arriving at Veracruz. It is presented as a help to the locals, as a way of levelling them up, but this is just a glamour, in reality it is a clever way of extracting all the value and shipping it back home. Whether by extending the London commuter belt and wrecking local housing markets or by opening up local supply networks to cheap international competition the outcome of this type of progress is nearly always the same for both the locals and the visitors. The clue to the real intent of hs2 is seen in its direction. It does not really go north-south as is often suggested in interviews with ministers as it completely avoids the both the central and south west regions entirely. It doesn’t really help the north east or west as its route does not tend majorily in either of those directions and probably couldn’t get more equally remote from both the east region and wales if it tried. What we are left with should probably be more accurately described as the London-North radial link draining the resources, energy and uniqueness of each of the major cities in turn back down the London.
Misjudged is too weak a word to express the negative impression I have about the hs2 project. To me hs2 represents the bulldozer in the rain forest, or perhaps the conquistodors arriving at Veracruz. It is presented as a help to the locals, as a way of levelling them up, but this is just a glamour, in reality it is a clever way of extracting all the value and shipping it back home. Whether by extending the London commuter belt and wrecking local housing markets or by opening up local supply networks to cheap international competition the outcome of this type of progress is nearly always the same for both the locals and the visitors. The clue to the real intent of hs2 is seen in its direction. It does not really go north-south as is often suggested in interviews with ministers as it completely avoids the both the central and south west regions entirely. It doesn’t really help the north east or west as its route does not tend majorily in either of those directions and probably couldn’t get more equally remote from both the east region and wales if it tried.
What we are left with should probably be more accurately described as the London-North radial link draining the resources, energy and uniqueness of each of the major cities in turn back down the London.